One Shots
by jm0610
Summary: One shots that will cover past episodes. Please R&R.
1. Sharpwin 1

A/N: I do not own New Amsterdam. A lot of the quotes are from the episode but some will have my own . Please Read and Review. Hope you enjoy.

Season 2 Episode 1: Your Turn

Time seemed to stop as Helen stood in front of New Amsterdam with her luggage. She was finally back at the hospital after 2 weeks of press for Valentina's cancer treatment. She did not know how long it had been since the cab dropped her off or how long she had spent outside looking at the large hospital. The surrounding people seemed to disappear as her memories pushed forward to the front of her mind.

It had been 3 months since the accident and she had barely stepped a foot into the building where the tragedy happened. It was not just her injuries that ran her from her job but her feelings. She felt guilty because even though Max was married she had been slowly falling in love with him. She did not realize it until Akash had broken up with her but she would do anything for Max.

But he was married and even though him and Georgia were not on the best of terms she liked her. So when Georgia died and seeing Max crumble, it was not just sympathy and pain she felt but also a small bit of relieve. Every time she attempted to comfort him the guilt of her unwelcome feelings would pull her back.

And Max was not any help either. He would not talk to her. Anytime Georgia was brought up he would remove himself from the conversation or change the subject. It came to the point where he was using baby Luna as an excuse to end the 's behaviour paired with Helen's guilt just further pushed Helen into going back to her Dr. Helen persona and take a break from the hospital.

"Excuse me," said a gruff voice as he rushed past Helen into the hospital. Helen was shaken from her stupor as she tried to move her luggage out of the way. She took a deep breath and began her walk into her home.

Helen entered the crowded hallway and immediately began searching, looking for his deep blue eyes. Max walked down the hallway with his head bowed, muttering to himself about insulin and Toronto. He was trying to keep himself as busy as possible to keep his mind from drifting to that dark place but it was unavoidable.

Max lifted his head up as he made his way through the busy hallway. His eyes first landed on her caramel colored face as a soft, hesitant smile spread across her first. He could not help ut to pause in his quick walk as his unbidden emotions came to focus. His mind automatically shifts to 3 months ago when he thought he had lost her.

The memories flooded his system and he could not help but to feel a bit of abandonment and angry towards Sharpe. She left him when he needed her the most, not only did she leave as his friend and deputy but she abandoned him as his doctor. She was also causing him to fall in love with her and the guilt of his feelings combined with the loss of Georgia was just too much. She promised to find a solution and she did but she did not keep her promise to be her doctor. Who was he supposed to talk to?

He tried to compose himself and his thoughts as best as he could as he placed his work mask on. He has been trying to cover his pain but she always seems to see through it. He gives her a tiny smile before walking past.

Helen's tentative smile dropped as Max brushed past her. She attempted to explain her as her guilt instantly took over her for not coming back to the hospital sooner.

"I just came from the airport," she announced hoping that Max would read between the lines. When she realized he had no intention of slowing his pace to talk to her she quickly turned around and grabbed her suitcase before trying to keep pace with him.

"Sorry it's been so long. Everyone's just so interested in your treatment." Helen tried to stay on the positive news and tried not to bring up anything that may affect Max. She thought he would be happy with the news but Max barely even glanced at her.

"That's the great news. How are you?" Helen asked cautiously. Max could not help but to let his anger and fatigue slip through. He was tired of people asking that question. He is not okay. He never planned to raise his child alone but now he has no choice. He would have switched spots with Georgia in a second if he could.

"I'm sure Dr. Castro's been keeping you in the loop." Max replied pettily. Helen pushed past his slight and quickly agreed that she had. She knew Max was not the most - to her presence right now but they had a strong bond and could push past this like they pushed past it last year. She knew he was angry with her last year when she decided to quit being her doctor but this felt worst. At least then he would talk to her maybe not in the most details but he would be honest.

Now he would not even answer her questions directly. She did not mean to abandon him but she could not stay in this hospital everyday watching him get treated by Dr. Castro. She felt useless knowing there was nothing that she could do for him, She could not even console him properly after Georgia died so she did what she always did. She ran back to the safety of being Doctor Helen, a charming television doctor. She would occasionally return to the hospital to check up on her patients but she would never stay too long.

"I'm thrilled that the treatment is working though I am surprised to learn that we are suddenly in the insulin business," she responded with raised eyebrows. She eyed Max cautiously as she gave him an easy going smile to indicate she was just trying to ease the moment but Max was not budging. He had that determined glint in his eye even though it was a little dimmer than when he had first stepped foot into New Amsterdam it was still there.

"I don;t know if we can call it a business. We're giving it away for free." Max's stated caught Helen by surprising. She could not help but think that just like how she was focusing all on her celebrity work that Max was focused all on fixing the world's problems, no matter how impractical the solution.

She was beginning to feel concerned at his stride to fix everything. She carefully broached the subject that she had been avoiding for the past 3 months.

"Max. How are things at home?" Helen tried to keep eye contact with him so he would not lie to her but Max kept his head dipped. A small smile graced his face as he responded, "Good, yeah. Luna's amazing. She's, uh, sleeping through the night now. Twelve weeks, so it's great."

Helen noticed how Max refused to even talk about himself and how he was dealing with the loss of his wife and baby's mother. Before she could even ask Max turned away from her ready to end the conversation when he felt her small, warm palm gently wrap around his wrist to gain his could not just let him walk away from her, not like this. She knew if she didn't try then they would never fix the problem they were having. She just wanted Max to feel safe talking to her again.

She looked deep into his eyes so that he could understand the words she was saying and to know how deeply she meant them. "Max, if you ever need to talk, I'm here." Max did not even grace her a response to her stated but instead told her welcome back before swiftly turning his back on her and continuing on his journey through the hospital.


	2. Chapter 2

Season 2 Episode 3 AU Helen's POV

Max bursts into Helen's office as she's going through the patient's file. She began speaking before he could even sidetrack her.

"Do you know how hard the FDA makes it to answer one question?" she questioned him. Helen walked to her desk but she could feel his energy shift into confusion. He looked at her questioning if she was being serious or messing with him.

"Is that a serious question?" Max asks. She nods her head before glancing up at him. She explained to him that the FDA stopped approving metal-on-metal hips in 2016 due to higher risks. Her patient was one of the 3000 patients that got the hip replacement before 2016 and the company never bothered to fix it. She was shaking with rage the more she explained to Max.

Max's face cleared of all confusion and was instead replaced by a tentative smile. "I'm so glad you said that, because that is exactly the kind of issue that you are gonna be solving when you are on the board of New Amsterdam." Max continued to stare at Helen as he proposed his crazy idea.

Helen let out a small chuckle because Max must have been joking. When she realized that his bright blue eyes were still fixed with hope she softened slightly before responding. "On the board?" she asked dubiously.

Max nodded to show he was serious. He added that she was his first choice but of course she could read his face.

"Really?" she scoffed as she raised her eyebrow. "You don't want Dr. Sharpe. You want Dr. Helen." Max looked down in shame as he agreed with her and explained that Brantley wanted a celebrity who would be able to bring money to the board.

"Max, when you first got here, you asked me to scale down on publicity and scale up on medicine, which gave me purpose, a renewed sense of self, something I could use right about now." Helen hoped that Max could see the fire in her eyes, especially with this new patient. She hoped that he would support her like she has always done for him.

Max softened his tone and took a step closer to her before staring into her soul with his bright blue eyes. He knew she had a soft spot for his ocean blue eyes and she never says no to him anyways so it couldn't hurt to try. "I know, but I really need one of us on the board to make a difference, someone who represents our views, and Brantley already nixed Reynolds."

Helen let out a laugh as she made her way to her door to urge Max to leave. She knew if she didn't get him out of her office she would probably give in to his insane idea. "Oh, gosh, I thought I was your first choice." She joked coyly.

"First in my heart." Helen's breath caught at Max's response before she remembered what he was trying to do. She played it off like he said nothing and pushed her feelings for him down. He was joking, just trying to get her to agree to his dumb plan.

"Oh Max, I would love to help you and this hospital, but Brantley will never approve me, celebrity or not. Because effective chairmen only approve board members that they agree with, and that's mort definitely not one of us." She gently urged him out the door.

As he walked past her, he gave her one last puppy dog look. When he had no effect, he shook his head with a tiny smile and left on his mission to find a new board member.

Helen leaned against the door grateful to be out of Max's presence. His intense stares and his sweet words just kept making her feel more confused and guilty. When Georgia was still alive it was easy to push everything down and blame herself for thinking more into his actions. Now with no buffer between them it was getting hard to discern if he liked her or if he is just being a good friend. She hated herself for feeling a little happy at Georgia's death.

She shook her head to clear it and refocus on what she was doing, saving her patient. She continued to go through her files until her fears were confirmed. Vince, her patient, would need a hip replacement again. She paged Lauren to expect her in the ED before explaining what she found.

Lauren and Helen approached Vince and explained that his blood would need to be filtered to help save his remaining kidney function. They told him that it was all due to his first hip replacement that had a metal-on-metal hip. The two metals were rubbing against each other and the metal was being released into his bloodstream. Vince seemed confused and asked how to stop the metals from leaking into his blood. Once she explained that it was the company's fault and that he would need a new hip, Vince became distressed. He had no way to pay for the new hip replacement and he couldn't possibly take off that much time for the recovery.

Helen felt a fire light within her and disgust at Wedlow Medical, the hip manufacturer. She knew that they could afford the surgery so she decided that they would be the ones to pay. She reassured Vince that he didn't have to worry and that she would do everything in her power to make sure that he would be okay.

Helen was heading back to her office after a failure of compromise with Wedlow Medical. They decided to not agree to her terms of replacing all their metal-on-metal hips and now she would have to take the hard road.

Tomorrow she would be making a rare TV appearance where she would air out all the dirty information about the manufacturers. If that means the end of her medical career to save her patient, then its what needed to be done. She was tired of people acting like because she was a TV doctor that she wasn't certified and knowledgeable.

As she entered her office, Max was pacing her room anxiously. Before she could even question why he was there or what had him so anxious, he began speaking quickly. "Helen, you can't do this. They will destroy you."

Helen shook her head in complete disbelieve of what Max was saying. This was the man that ripped up the hospital's insulin contract, and before that implemented a nursery for prisoners in Rikers. Max continued on, trying to get Helen to understand what she was doing. After Georgia, she was the only person he had other than Luna. She was everything to him right now, the only thing keeping him going other than his precious baby girl. He explained that the company would never stop hunting her and with their endless funds, she will lose everything that she has worked for.

"They only see me as Dr. Helen, the TV personality, so I intend to put that personality to good use." Max stared at her incredulously. "Yeah, but what about Dr. Sharpe and her patients. The need you." Max implored. He didn't know how he was going to make it if she wasn't around but she was not aking down. He hoped that she would back down so he wouldn't have to tell her the truth, that he was the one that needed her desperately.

"She is out fighting for her patients, something that you do every single day, and yet, you're asking me to pull my punches." Helen was confused by Max's approach to the situation. She thought that he would fully back her and support her in her decision. Toi be honest he was the one that inspired her to go to such limits for her patients.

"Because this will end your career, and I cant do this without you." he shouted. He could feel the tears stinging his eyes but he refused to let any roll down his cheek. He bit his cheek, took a deep breath before he continued. "I'm not fully here. A part of me is still on that ambulance."

Max sounded tired and exasperated. His body deflated as the truth was released from his lips. His eyes stared deep into her own chocolate ones. He hoped that she understood what he was trying to say, even though it might have been selfish of him.

Helen couldn't believe Max's audacity. He knew she would do anything for him especially due to how he lost Georgia and her guilt for not dying. But she was getting tired of him emotionally manipulating her. She was getting so anger and flustered that tears began to spring to her eyes. She hated herself for this. She hasn't let anyone get this close to her to make her this flustered since Mo.

Helen took a deep breath before responding to Max. "You push me away, and you expect me to understand. And then you need me? And you use your feelings as leverage." She couldn't help but to raise her voice at him. She just felt the anger keep building from him ignoring her since she's been back, her anger at her own feelings towards Max and how weak she was when it came to him.

Max screwed up his face in confusion, "you think I'm using Georgia to manipulate you?"

"I don't know what you're doing because you won't ever talk to me anymore." Max just shook his head at her statement, in complete disbelieve. How could she be so smart but so oblivious. Even when Georgia was around, he was still trying to hide his emotions from her although for a different reason. He didn't want her to be burdened by all of his pain and loss.

"I can't talk to you because I'm trying to spare you. I don't want you to feel this. I don't want you to experience this." He let out a small chuckle as her face finally signaled her comprehension. Her body didn't relax though, he could tell he was not having any effect on her choice. Max knew he had to try harder if he was ever gonna change her mind. "I know it's not fair. I know but none of this is fair."

Her voice was still angry and tired. "We can just toss 'fair' out the window. Max, when you need me , I am here for you." She couldn't help but to emphasize that she was always ready to be burdened by him. Her heart ached to see him in so much pain but there was nothing he could say right now to change her mind. "For all of it, I am here," she stressed. "But not at the expense of my patient."

"You cannot keep doing this to me Max. Every time I let you go , you do this." She could feel the hot tears race down her cheeks as she lost all control of her emotions. "You don't have the right to tell me what I can and can't do anymore. I am tired of being at your beck and call Max." She wiped her eyes and exhaled as she finally said what she had been thinking.

She thought that would be the end of the conversation but Max wasn't don't yet. He took she steps towards her with a purpose. She was so shocked by his advance that she backed up into her desk. He was breathing heavily and peering down into his soul. His eyes flickered from her lips to her eyes and back.

She couldn't resist the urge to bite down on her bottom lip, waiting for his next move. Max lowered his head and she thought he was gonna kiss her but instead he placed his forehead against her own. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes before pleading with her shortly. She closed her eye and slowly shook her head no. He smiled before taking a step back.

"Okay, Helen. Do what you need to. I'll do what I have to too." Max quietly left the room, leaving Helen in a stupor. She just kept going over his words in her head. She was confused on what he was going to do and she could feel her love for him beginning to blossom again.


End file.
